Tag: mk1

When Gordon Murray contacts your restoration shop to enquire about a project car, you’d better bring your A-game. Luckily for Retropower, it looks as though A-game is the only game they know. They’ve been tasked with building the Gordon Murray a Mk1 Escort, and are bringing us along for the ride via a video series. The filming has a nice relaxed pace and you have a great opportunity to listen to the thought-process behind the build from all members of the business. Will this be the worlds most sorted and best-built Mk1 Escort when it’s complete?

Hailing from Bristol in the UK, this unorthodox drift car starts out as a Mk1 FordEscort estate. Soon enough the guts of the car are unceremoniously removed and everything that goes back in is custom built by a very talented owner/builder. The finishing touch is the ex-350ZV6 that finds itself in front of the firewall. The most impressive part about this build (well, the whole damn thing is impressive) is just how fast the progress takes place. With the shell currently in undercoat, I don’t think it will be too long before we see it completed.

Forgive me, Church of Build Threads, for I have sinned. It has been less than twelve weeks since my last Mk1Golf feature, but I cannot resist the temptation put yet another one on the site. I knew I was going to love this build from the first time I saw it, for the sole reason that I’ve already featured a previous build from the same owner, the Mustang Pace Car. I am so jealous of people who manage to have multiple cool builds on the go at the same time, I struggle to even have one! I was very interested to see how the vinyl wrap turned out, as it’s not something I’m used to seeing on classic cars, but it looks great. The car is neat to start with, but becomes a whole lot better with additions and improvements to all the usual areas, such as body, interior, wheels, suspension, and plenty of fine detail work.

Things have been quieter than usual around here and on Facebook/Twitter lately, and while I do apologise for that, I promise I have a good reason! My wife and I welcomed our first child into the world just over a week ago, so things have been understandably busy at home. But believe me when I say that in the back of my mind I was always thinking about the site and how you guys would be hanging for a new build! So, here we go. This car has been on my radar for a while, a great example of a home-built concoction, all fabricated by the owner, mixing a MK1 Volkswagen Caddy body with a MKIV Bora 4-motion V6 AWD driveline, and plenty of welding to stick it all together.

I know for the most part that Build-Threads.com is kind of a one-way thing. I post, you read, that type of deal. But the truth is that I love hearing from readers via email, Twitter, the Facebook page, and the new Facebook Discussion Group. Whilst everyone’s projects can’t be featured, I still love seeing what people are up to. Most of the time it’s regular guys like myself, tinkering away at their project in the garage, but every now and then something far beyond the reaches of us common folk greets me. Just the other day, Lewis from Peasnell Racing Designs sent me a Facebook message with a few images of his work, letting me know very politely that he’d love to see his work on the site if I ever had a ‘slow news day’. What I saw left me gobsmacked, and I couldn’t wait to share it with everyone and hopefully give Lewis a platform for his work via this humble website. Before we start salivating over the fabrication and design, I’ll leave you with this quote from Lewis to remind us that, although his work might be otherworldly, deep down he’s just a normal guy like you and me…

“Growing up I loved LEGO and drawing, this is just my grown up version, I’m sure.”

Visit Peasnell Racing Designs on Facebook and give them a like to stay in touch with their future work. I’d like to thank Lewis for allowing me the opportunity to share his work with the world on Build-Threads.com.

I’ve got a fair few builds that have been sitting in my inbox for quite a while, so for this post I decided to go all the way back to my oldest submission from June 2010, 3 years ago! Looking at it now, I’m kicking myself for not featuring it sooner. You should know by now that I have a penchant for MK1 Golfs, and this one here is actually a Kamei replica created from what was already a clean street car. This build combines 3 of my loves: Mk1’s, retro liveries, and hill climb racers. If it was a Datsun I think my head would explode. For some history on Kamei, click here and here.

Many years ago I remember seeing what I still think is one of the best looking CA18DET’s ever put together. It was posted on a forum, and I liked it so much I pm’d the person who’d posted the image. That CA18DET wasn’t bound for the usual S13Nissan or Datsun 1200 ute, it was built for Glenn’s MK1 Escort, hence the name “Niscort”. Apart from the crossbreed engine conversion, the little Ford receives a full rotisserie build with plenty of rust repairs and custom suspension work. Unfortunately it’s not quite finished yet, but I’ve been checking for updates for so many years I thought I should just go ahead and feature it, enjoy!

About a year ago I featured an Audi A3 turbo belonging to a very talented man by the name of Alex. He was the driving force behind my idea for creating a post tag called People Who Get It, for those special build threads belonging to people who take the time to take nice photos and keep their threads updated. Well, that A3 was just a daily driver, something to tinker with while his real project was being worked on in the background. This is that project.

Remember the Eurowise AWD R32 powered Mk1 rabbit? Well it’s still in progress, but the team responsible for the build decided they wanted a sweet ride of their own to debut at the recent H20 show. So with that in mind they locked themselves in the Eurowise compound and built a VR6 powered Mk1 Cabby in 16 days. That’s an engine swap, bodywork, paint, interior, suspension…all in just over a couple of weeks. Anyone else feeling very lazy and incompetent at the moment?

I think I better feature this build just so people stop submitting it! Around 3 or 4 people have emailed me various links to this car in the last month, including one of the men behind it, Mike from Eurowise. Once you take a look at the images, you’ll see why it’s getting so much attention. Already the recipient of one very nice build including a turbo’d 16V 2.0, the car has recently been torn down for a full overhaul. It’s no secret I’m a big fan of MK1 Golfs, and even though I like them a bit more sedately built, this one takes things to the extreme with an engine, driveline, and floorplan being swapped under it from a MKIV R32 Golf, including the AWD system. I especially like how the MKIV rear end was shortened and sectioned to fit inside the dimensions of the MK1 body, instead of just tacking on some wheel arch flares or going widebody. Did I mention it’s also going to be twin turbo?